Plant science - Issued patents / Published patent applications

A method to genetically manipulate plants to enable them to grow faster and generate more seeds.

ACBP2 can be used to enhance drought tolerance in genetically modified plants. ACBP2 was observed to be expressed in guard cells, and ACBP2- overexpressing transgenic Arabidopsis were conferred enhanced drought tolerance. Vectors/expression cassettes for conferring drought tolerance to plants/plant material are provided. Methods of using ACBP2 to enhance drought tolerance of plants are provided. Plants and plant material with improved drought tolerance are also provided. Methods for screening for genes with ACBP2-like activity are also provided.

Provided herein is a transgenic plant, seed, or progeny, genetically engineered to overexpress one or more exogenous 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA synthase 1 (HMGS1) in an amount effective to enhance growth and/or seed yield relative to a control plant. Also provided are methods of enhancing plant growth and/or seed yield by genetically engineering a plant to overexpress one or more exogenous HMGS1 in an amount effective to enhance growth and/or seed yield relative to a control plant. The plant belongs to the Solanaceae family, and the one or more exogenous HMGS1 comprise an amino acid sequence at least 77% identical to Brassica juncea HMGS1 as set forth in SEQ ID NO:6. Further provided are methods of screening for a functional variant of Brassica juncea HMGS1.

Transgenic plants having increased growth rate, increased sugar content, and increase yield are disclosed, and methods for making the same. The transgenic plants have a gene coding for a phosphatase having a C-terminal motif under control of a heterologous promoter incorporated into the genomic DNA of the plant.

Transgenic plants having increased growth rate and increase yield are disclosed, and methods for making the same. In one embodiment, the method comprises: transforming a plant or plant cell with a nucleic acid molecule comprising a plant kinase and/or phosphatase gene selected from NG6, NG21, NG24, NG28, and NG32, and over-expressing said kinase and/or phosphatase gene in the plant or plant cell.

Methods of using genetically-transformed plants in the phytoremediation of lead are described. Unlike many organisms in which only 10-kDa ACBPs have been identified, there exists a family of six ACBPs in the model plant arabidopsis. Other than a function in mediating the transfer of acyl-coa esters in plant lipid metabolism, all six arabidopsis ACBPs can bind the heavy metal lead and are therefore applicable for phytoremediation. These methods of phytoremediation will provide a cheap, simple and efficient method in the removal of contaminating lead from soil/water/environment by the growth of the acbp-overexpressing genetically-transformed plants in the contaminated environment. There is also provided a method to remove lead from contaminated water.

ACBP6 can be used to enhance low temperature tolerance in genetically modified plants. An acbp6 T-DNA insertional mutant that lacked ACBP6 mRNA and protein, displayed increased sensitivity to freezing temperature (-8 DEG C.), while ACBP6-overexpressing transgenic Arabidopsis were conferred enhanced freezing tolerance. Methods of using ACBP6 to enhance low temperature tolerance of plants are provided.

The invention discloses genetically modified plants, such as potato plants. The plants are more resistant to a pathogen of interest following transformation of plant cells with a chimeric gene comprising a chitinase gene and beta-1,3-glucanase gene. The invention also provides a method of enhancing the resistance of plants to pathogens by introducing a Brassica chitinase gene encoding two or more chitin-binding domains and beta-1,3-glucanase gene and expressing the chitinase gene and beta-1,3-glucanase gene.             

The present invention relates to proteinase inhibitor ii genes, sapin2a and sapin2b, their production in transformed plants, and isolation of sapin2a and sapin2b proteins from transformed plants of the invention. The invention further relates to use in inhibiting endogenous protease activities in transformed plants. In specific embodiments, the protease activities are trypsin-like and chymotrypsin-like activities. The invention relates to a method for protection of heterologous protein production in transformed plants by the co-expression of a proteinase inhibitor gene, e.g. sapin2a or sapin2b, which encodes a proteinase inhibitor protein, or a biologically active fragment, analog, and variant thereof, that inhibits protease activities. Specifically, the present invention also provides methods of inhibiting programmed cell death, including senescence, in plants.; the invention further relates to methods to enhance resistance of plants to pests or pathogens, including insects. The present invention also relates to genetically modified plants, and in particular genetically modified lettuce. The genetically modified plants have inhibited endogenous trypsin-like and chymotrypsin-like activities following transformation of the plant with a vector comprising one or more proteinase inhibitor ii gene, such as sapin2a and/or sapin2b. The invention further relates to transformed plants having enhanced resistance to insects. The invention further relates to transformed plants in which pcd or senescense is inhibited by transformation of plants using vectors of the present invention.

The invention relates to genetically modified plants and progeny thereof which constitute edible plant-derived mucosal vaccines and injectable plant-derived mucosal vaccines against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The invention relates to a recombinant vector that transforms specifically, but not limited to, the nuclei and/or plastids of tobacco, tomato and lettuce plants for antigen production. In specific embodiments, the plastid transformation vector expressing the nucleotide sequences are pCV1, pCV6 and pCV8, and their derivatives containing an S1 with nucleotide (but not amino acid) changes to optimize codon usage for expression in plants.; The present invention relates to methods of making the modified plants which comprises transformation of plants with vectors for nuclearexpression and/or plastid expression of nucleotide sequences of the SARS-CoV virus, fragments, derivatives, analogs, or variants thereof. The present invention also relates to methods of immunizationagainst SARS and methods of antibody detection using the SARS-CoV antigens generated by the plastid and/or nuclear vector(s) transformed plants.

The present invention provides plant-derived agents to interfere with the nonstructural NS1 gene from the influenza A virus subtype H1N1. More particularly, the siRNAs that exhibit strong inhibitory activity towards NS1, which effectively suppress replication of the influenza virus in mammalian cells. The invention further provides methods for production of siRNAs for the suppression of a broad range of influenza viral subtypes with sequence homologies.

The present invention provides plant-derived agents to interfere with the nonstructural NS1 gene from the influenza A virus subtype H1N1. More particularly, the siRNAs that exhibit strong inhibitory activity towards NS1, which effectively suppress replication of the influenza virus in mammalian cells. The invention further provides methods for production of siRNAs for the suppression of a broad range of influenza viral subtypes with sequence homologies.